The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-23
The INDUSTRIAL sou1H-
IneXhaustIbie Mineral Resources Tributary
to the City of Chattanooga.

InexhaustIbie Mineral Resources Tributary
to the City of Chattanooga.
The soil of Chattanooga is fertile in
iron. 1t underlies the very city, and
everywhere ribs the vast mountains
which surround it and stretch away on
every side as far as the eye can reach.
But iron dug out of the ground is mixed
with impurities that need to be purged
away before it is fit for its multitudinous
uses. These auxiliary materials are
generally found at such distances from
the ore as to involve heavy cost in
transportation. But in this section they
lie side by side and all together, the
iron with the coal needed for coke, the,
limestone for smelling the ore, and the
fire-clay and sandstone for the construc--
ton of furnaces. An idea of these min.
eral resources thus tributary to Chatta--
nooga can not better be given than in
the words of General John Z. Wilder,
the founder of the iron-works at Rock.
wood. He says:
1.-The coal-feld of Tennessee extends.
entirely across the State, from Kentucky
to Georgia and Alabama, being an ex--
tension of the Appalachian coal-felds,
whose northern extremity is in Northern
Pennsylvania, and extends southwest
erly across Pennsylvania, West Vir-.
ginia, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee,
and ends in Central Alabama. The
coal-field of Tennessee covers 8, 100
81 A
square miles in Alabama, and 250
square miles in Georgia, all belonging
to the lower coal measures. All these.
broad acres, excepting q small area in
Alabama, form covering for the Cum
berland table-land, raised above the
surrounding country, with an outcropr
above the drainage of the valleys on
either side. easily opened, ventilated
and Drained
Throughout this extensive region are,
wonderful beds of fossiliferous red,
hematite iron ore, none of it more than
fifteen miles from the eastern outcrop.
of the coal measures, and all of it
covered by the great limestone beds of
the subcarboniferous period. "All these,
formations lie like the leaves of book.
fiat, bedded on each other, and general
ly tilted up and broken into high ridges,
or folded into deep synclinal troughs or
valleys, in either case exposing the.
edges of the ore beds, making it easy to-
find, ready to mine, abundant in guam
tity, always accessible. These beds
usually average four or five feet in
thickness, sometimes more" The,
General adds in regard to one species.
of the timber of this region: The
largest forests of chestnut-oak in the
United States, producing the best.
quality of tan-bark, cover the coal-felds-
of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
supplying the largest oak-tannery on
the continent at Chattanooga, and
furnishing tan-bark for the towns
of st. Louis, Louisville and Gin.
cinnati. They are sufficient in
area to supply 100000 cords per year
for an indefinite period without exhaus--
ton, as the tree reaches maturity in our
climate in forty years, and grows on an
area of over 100000 acres; and if cut
once in forty years, and producing only
two cords per tree, it would produce
perpetually $4,000 cords each year.
One cord of chestnut-oak tan-bark
grown in this latitude produces thirty
three per cent more tannin than all the.
bark grown north of the Kanawha-
river"
Other woods equally valuable sur
round Chattanooga. The city is in the
midst of vast forest, where not one
sixth of the land has yet been subjected
to cultivation. Besides oak, there are
chestnut and black walnut standing
| there in almost inexhaustible supply
and primeval grandeur. Here, too, is
hickory enough to make the wagons of
continent, and a sufficient supply of
red cedar is growing on the Clinch river
alone to furnish hollow-ware to every
American housekeeper for another CEN
tury.-Harper' Magazine.